UNIVERSITY PARK -- When you are 0-2 and heading into one of the most intimidating football venues anywhere, it might be a good time to look for a silver lining.

The SMU Mustangs have one with their defense. That unit has played well enough to win games. Of the 88 points SMU has given up, 28 were directly on offensive turnovers or against special teams.

Another seven came after a punt return left TCU with just a 15-yard field in front of them.

That's 35 points that the defense had little or no chance of stopping.

OK, that still leaves 53 points in two games. But giving up 26.5 points these days in college football qualifies as acceptable. In the Big 12, it would be exemplary.

Coach Sonny Dykes credits improved depth, particularly on the defensive line, for the success. The defense had to play far too many snaps in the opener against North Texas and fatigue was a problem. But having bodies to rotate into the line has been a way to keep everybody fresher. And healthier. Of course, it's easier to do that when you have enough quality players to give everybody breathers.

"We haven't gotten a lot of guys banged up," Dykes said. "That's probably part of the reason why we can see the light at the end of the tunnel defensively.

"I think we've played pretty well [defensively] at times. We've put them in some bad situations. We gave up 42 points on Saturday -- seven on a punt return, seven on a fumble return for a touchdown, and then we gave them the ball inside the 15 one time.

"When you look at that against a pretty good offensive football team like TCU, you start to say: You know what, we're making some progress. We gave up a couple big plays, but I thought we stopped the run fairly well."

The Mustangs are going to have to do the same thing again Saturday at Michigan, which, as Dykes said, "is going to come out and try to ram it down our throat, I'm sure."

It's a huge challenge going into The Big House at Ann Arbor, Mich., which typically seats about 110,000 fans. Several Mustang players said they are excited about getting the experience of playing at Michigan.

The be-careful-what-you-wish-for mentality should be front and center, however. Dykes said any success that SMU has is not going to be determined by the huge crowd or the Wolverines' tradition.

A strong will and attention to detail will take them a lot further than simply being amped up, Dykes said.

"Our guys need to be amped up all the time," he said. "We learned that in Week 1. I think we were un-amped, and that's why we got our tails kicked."

That was the opening loss at North Texas, a game a lot of people thought the Mustangs were supposed to win.

Even in that game, however, the defense did not get embarrassed.

"I feel like we've been doing a pretty good job," linebacker Kyran Mitchell said. "The TCU game, that was just three big plays. Those were just missed tackles or blown assignments. Once we get everything down we'll be good. But we're losing, so it's kind of hard to say we're doing a good job. But for sure, we're getting better right now."

Mitchell said one thing sticks out about Michigan.

"Just their overall size," he said. "They're big, hefty guys. We got to use our speed to our advantage."